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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Freed - the kidnapped kids Putin 'tried to beat the Ukrainian out of': Overjoyed children embrace family as they finally get back home after MONTHS in brutal Kremlin 'camps' - but thousands remain missing as war crimes warrant awaits Russian President |
| 2023-03-24 |
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A group of Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russian authorities and held in Kremlin-backed camps for months have been freed and returned home to emotional reunions. The 17 youngsters were taken to Russian-occupied Crimea when their towns were overrun by Moscow's forces, and were told their families had abandoned them. A charity yesterday returned the first of the snatched children to their homes, where they told how Russians beat them with iron rods if they voiced support for Kyiv. The International Criminal Court last week issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children's commissioner, accusing them of war crimes over the forced deportations of 16,000 Ukrainian children. Yesterday's release was praised by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen who announced she would help organise a conference on securing the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia during the ongoing conflict. Russia is accused by the ICC of attempting to 're-educate' the children, while some of the victims were threatened with violence and punished for expressing pro-Ukrainian views. One teenager told how the children were beaten with rods if they spoke out of turn. He said a security officer had warned him: 'We will take you to a boarding school, you will sit there and understand everything. 'One girl was hit on the back, she had a big bruise on her back from where the rod was,' he added. 'We were sat in the hall, and there someone shouted "Glory to Ukraine!" and then someone answered "Glory to the heroes". 'They were taken away. But I don't know what happened to him.' He said the people holding him threatened to take him to Pskov, a Russian city close to the Estonian border, 500 miles north of Kyiv. 'They said that they would take us to Pskov... Somewhere in Russia, there is a boarding school, and there you will be adopted,' he said. 'But our parents didn't kick us out, like, you can't take us anywhere!' The reunion was organised by Save Ukraine, an NGO that fights what it says are illegal deportations of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territory. More than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the February 24, 2022 invasion, according to Kyiv, with many allegedly placed in institutions and foster homes. Russia denies the allegations, saying instead it has saved Ukrainian children from the horrors of the war. But the International Criminal Court (ICC) last week issued an arrest warrant against President Vladimir Putin for unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children. Zaporozhchenko last saw his children in October in Kherson, the only regional capital that Russian forces captured following the invasion, when they left for a so-called Russian summer camp. He expected tough fighting in his home city as Ukrainian forces were pushing closer to recapturing it, which they ultimately did in November. Sending his kids to Crimea - a scenic and touristy peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 - seemed the lesser evil. Russian officials 'promised to send them to these camps for a week or two,' he told AFP. 'By the time we realised we shouldn't have done it (let them go), it was too late,' he said. Families were sometimes pressured into sending their kids on the so-called holidays, said Myroslava Kharchenko, a lawyer working with Save Ukraine. '(Russian officials) told parents that they have one hour to think, and that if Ukrainians get there before, they will bring American mercenaries who will beat and rape the children.' After 'blackmail, manipulation and intimidation, they take the children away,' Kharchenko added. Parents have previously had to embark on the fraught journey themselves to find their children on their own, Kharchenko said. But for the first time, Save Ukraine group organised a group collection for the separated children by assuming power of attorney for those parents unable to make the journey. They chartered a bus that went through Poland and Belarus and then to Russia, before picking up the children in annexed Crimea. Some of children interviewed by AFP described a level of political indoctrination. 'If we didn't sing the (Russian) national anthem, they made us write an explanatory note. Over the New Year, we were shown Putin's speech,' 15-year-old Taisia said. Zaporozhchenko's 11-year-old daughter, Yana, said 'everything was like in normal camps' but camp officials 'made us sing and dance when inspectors came' from Moscow. Forty-three-year-old Inesa Vertosh said her son had become 'more serious' after the long separation. 'He looks at me and says 'Mom, I don't want to tell you about it, you wouldn't sleep at night'.' All children will be given psychological support, said Kharchenko. Her organisation was 'doing everything so that children and their parents do not return to dangerous territories', she added. The child said the Russians planned to take them to Pskov where they would be adopted. Related: Ukrainian children: 2023-03-23 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: March 22nd, 2023 Ukrainian children: 2023-03-18 International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin could hasten him being toppled from within Kremlin, expert predicts - as Moscow rages against 'outrageous' decision to try and put despot on trial for abducting thousands of children Ukrainian children: 2023-03-18 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: March 17th, 2023 |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #2 Reportedly some were snatched and some parents were offered the choice to agree, mossomo. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2023-03-24 22:21 |
| #1 An NGO that was formed and founded in the same year that the Maidan Revolution took place. And when the article's author exclaims, snatched from their homes, the author means the parents decided (and later regretted) to send their children to camps in Crimea instead of keeping the kids home in what was to become a War Zone (Kherson). |
| Posted by: mossomo 2023-03-24 12:48 |